(Norm should, too, although he’s voted generally correctly over the past seven years).
Senator Klobuchar:
I know you’re busy – too busy to respond to your consituents, indeed! – but I think you oughtta make time for this offer from Michael Yon:
One of the biggest problems with the Iraq War is that politics has frequently triumphed over truth. For instance, we went into Iraq with shoddy intelligence (at best), no reconstruction plan, and perhaps half as many troops as were required. We refused to admit that an insurgency was growing, until the country collapsed into anarchy and civil war. Now the truth is that Iraq is showing real progress on many fronts: Al Qaeda is being defeated and violence is down and continuing to decrease. As a result, the militias have lost their reason for existence and are getting beaten back or co-opted. Shia, Sunni and Kurds are coming together — although with various stresses — under the national government.
Oh, and…:
If progress continues at this rate, it is very possible that before 2008 is out, we can finally say “the war has ended.”
Yon is no administration ass-kisser, a fact that got him banned from the Hannity show; he’s always told it like it was.
Whatever we do in Iraq from here forward, we must strive to make better decisions than those made between 2003 and 2006. And one way to achieve that is by making certain that our civilian leaders are fully informed. All three candidates for President are extremely intelligent, but that doesn’t mean that all three are tracking the truth on the ground in Iraq. Anyone who wants to be President of the United States needs to see Iraq without the distorting lenses of the media or partisan politics. I would be honored to visit Iraq with Senator Obama, Senator Clinton, Senator McCain or any of their Senate colleagues.
I hereby offer to accompany any Senator to Iraq, whether they are pro-or anti-war, Democrat or Republican. I will make this offer personally to a few select Senators as well. Our conversations during the visit would be on- or off-record, as they wish.
Senator Klobuchar; you’d really show yourself to be a leader if you took Yon up on this.
Our civilian leaders need to make decisions based on the best information available. The only way to learn what is really going on in Iraq is to go there and listen to our ground commanders, who know what they are doing. Generals Petraeus and Odierno have years of experience in Iraq, and vast knowledge of our efforts there. But the young soldiers who have done multiple tours in Iraq also have unique and invaluable perspectives as well. These young soldiers have personally witnessed the trajectory of the war shift dramatically, and can articulate those changes in concrete and specific terms. It doesn’t matter if a soldier is only twenty-something. If he or she spent two or three years in the war, that person is likely to have valuable insights.
Take the offer, A-Klo. While it might contradict Harry Reid’s forced pessimism…
…oh, wait. Never mind.
Ah, Michael Yon, “the bed-wetters’ Ernie Pyle.”
Yon is no administration ass-kisser…he’s always told it like it was.
Yon in 2006:
Please do not let your respective media delude you: we are winning in Iraq.
Yon in 2005:
I get the impression that people at home are losing faith in the effort, though we are winning.
No towing the administration line there.
…we must strive to make better decisions than those made between 2003 and 2006.
Let’s hope Yon does a tad better in his reporting than he did between those years as well.
If progress continues at this rate, it is very possible that before 2008 is out, we can finally say “the war has ended.”
Now there’s a prognostication rooted in the back seat of the short bus.
Senator Klobuchar; you’d really show yourself to be a leader if you took Yon up on this.
Sen. Klobuchar, you’d really show yourself to be a clueless doof if you took this attention-whore in combat boots up on this.
Actually, he was right in both cases. His “crime” in both cases was disagreeing with the Dem party line on the war, which was written in about 2002.
Sen. Klobuchar; you know as well as I do that your average supporter is a lumpen dolt. Take Yon up on his offer. It can only help.
“attention-whore in combat boots up on this.” Wow. So Tim, regale us with what you found in Iraq when you were embedded with the troups. Tell us why your (un)informed opinion trumps Yon’s. And tell us the basis in which you feel free to call someone who is risking his life over there a “attention-whore in combat boots”. Agree or disagree with someone, that’s a chick-shit thing to say about someone in that position. If you disagree with him, tell us why and document your position.
It wouldn’t hurt Norm either.
And Yon is a former special forces soldier. Don’t remember if it was Rangers or Green Beret. He is the closet thing to Ernie Pyle in the last 60 years.
While I might normally regard ‘Tim in StP’ to be an authority on “how to be a ‘clueless doof'”, he is really trying to give Senator Klobuchar advice on “how NOT to be a ‘clueless doof'”. This is clearly something he is not qualified to do. 😉
Yon was a Green Beret.
And TiSP must be mindlessly parroting somebody’s talking points about Yon; I’m thinking Democrat Underground. Yon’s kept himself overseas, in Iraq and Afghanistan, for most of the past three years. He’s been among the troops – from four star generals all the way down to privates on patrol.
Now, Tim tries to ding him for writing things that disagreed with Tim’s Lords and Masters’ take on the war. He says “nope, no toeing the administration line there” for reporting…what Yon’s seen and believes. And, as events these days show, he was right. And the Dems, as usual, were wrong.
You be the judge.
I’d invite Tim to go get his shine box, but he isn’t worthy to shine Michael Yon’s combat boots.
Tim, you are a prime example of why the average American is disgusted with the liberal Left. Your lack of respect combined with your obvious intellectual incapacity is a frequent challenge to the concept of free speech.
You be the judge.
Judgment rendered.